Thread: Vending Business

It's a nice little passive income business. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the Vendstar 3000's. They're all plastic and way overpriced for the low quality they are. See if you can get some triple heads off of Craigslist (get metal machines like 1-800 vending, Routepro, Vendmaster, etc). You will be looking at about $50-$100 per triple head. The average gross income per head is $7 per month. Yes, only $7 gross is the average, so a triple in an average location will bring in $21 gross per month. I've had locations do less and locations do much more. If you get a quality machine and get good locations, it can make some decent cash on the side. Feel free to PM me about this subject as I have been working in the business for several years. Best of luck.

Thanks for the fast and helpful response, so now alittle about myself I am 18 years old now going into college. I have little capital to start with and this is why I wanted to start with vending for a little money on the side. The other question I had was would I be able to increase the number of vending machines I own over time and scale up? For example is 1k-2k per month possible, or realistic in the vending machine business, and mind keep in mind I will be a full time student and probably working a job on the side.

Thanks again -Dreamer99

Originally Posted by Dreamer99

Thanks for the fast and helpful response, so now alittle about myself I am 18 years old now going into college. I have little capital to start with and this is why I wanted to start with vending for a little money on the side. The other question I had was would I be able to increase the number of vending machines I own over time and scale up? For example is 1k-2k per month possible, or realistic in the vending machine business, and mind keep in mind I will be a full time student and probably working a job on the side.

Thanks again -Dreamer99

I have machines at 68 locations. I have some very good locations too. It is possible to make money, but it is still S-Quadrant "you own a job". Doing this will not be fastlane. There is not enough margin in it to leverage employee(s). If you want to get into it, use the proceeds as seed money for your fastlane business.

Originally Posted by G-man422

It's a nice little passive income business. Do yourself a favor and stay away from the Vendstar 3000's. They're all plastic and way overpriced for the low quality they are. See if you can get some triple heads off of Craigslist (get metal machines like 1-800 vending, Routepro, Vendmaster, etc). You will be looking at about $50-$100 per triple head. The average gross income per head is $7 per month. Yes, only $7 gross is the average, so a triple in an average location will bring in $21 gross per month. I've had locations do less and locations do much more. If you get a quality machine and get good locations, it can make some decent cash on the side. Feel free to PM me about this subject as I have been working in the business for several years. Best of luck.

Just out of pure curiosity (not getting into the vending business), how much does a decent craigslist machine cost and how is the maintenance on the things? Only because I see the vending machine guys at my school working on the machines all the time and it would seem like a small pain to keep running out and fixing them

Originally Posted by ProfessorSpeed

I have machines at 68 locations. I have some very good locations too. It is possible to make money, but it is still S-Quadrant "you own a job". Doing this will not be fastlane. There is not enough margin in it to leverage employee(s). If you want to get into it, use the proceeds as seed money for your fastlane business.

How much work is it? Full time job or weekend job? Like I said I will be attending college full time.

From what I've seen with the vending machines at work. They come out about 2-3 times a week to fill them. I'm not in the vending business but I've also been interested just to generate some passive income while I'm in college.

Mike39: Depends on the machines you get and the condition. I hardly ever see machines needing to be fixed, the machines at your school might get abuse some so that may be why you see them being fixed all the time. Price wise..I've seen from $200-$1,000. Usually around $300-$500.

http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/gene...g-machine.html (read post 3)

http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/busi...ny-advice.html

http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/gene...-machines.html

There's more but I don't have them bookmarked and you can search for them yourself

I have always wanted to get into Vending machines but I heard it is a very shady business. Is this true?

its not a shady biz.

there are shady people in every biz.

I had vending machines at my apartment complexes, they rocked.

I did read and review this book for the author, a bunch of years ago, (my vending uncle)

the best piece out of all of it.

the machines don't matter. its the locations.

he would test a location using a cardboard box spray painted black with some glitter on it, and a tub with a hole cut into it on the top, as a "honor box"

said it cost less than a buck to make. he would put them at "sample" locations, and if came back, there was sales, and no theft. he would arrange to spend money on a machine for the site.

if theft. he took it out, and said no thanks.

Great way to test markets.

and bottom line, its a SERVICE business. remember that.
good luck

Thank you all for your responses, they've all helped me tremendously. Ive decided im going to try out the vending industry first starting with apartment buildings; more specifically the apartment I will be staying at while I go to college in the city. If I do succeed in my apartment building I can probably branch out to surrounding apartment buildings, that way I will be close by to check on all of them/ restock them if needed.

Keep us updated on how your doing.

Originally Posted by epoch707

I found this great article on vending machines, worth a read:

Really? You "found" the article or are you simply promoting the website? Because right now, you're fooling absolutely no one.

Originally Posted by MJDeMarco

Really? You "found" the article or are you simply promoting the website? Because right now, you're fooling absolutely no one.

Three posts, all the same. Good bye!

Originally Posted by MJDeMarco

Really? You "found" the article or are you simply promoting the website? Because right now, you're fooling absolutely no one.

Give a brother a break! It's a mere COINCIDENCE that his first three posts are all links with keyword focused anchor text to the same website.....LOL!